Divine Light
by ijnfleetadmiral
Summary: A survivor's thoughts post-World War II...


**DISCLAIMER:** **I own nothing.**

I know, I know I should be working on _Gaijin Teitoku_ , but life's gotten in the way. I promise to resume it soon. This story came about, believe it or not, as the result of a Facebook post. That being said, might wanna have tissues ready...this is 99.5% not funny.

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 **Divine Light**

The early-morning tropical sun beat down on the pristine lagoon. One might think this was the perfect spot to lay on the beach and play in the surf, but no. Now it was being used for tests…tests to calculate the might of a new weapon. One that had been used before…to terrifying results.

Battleship Nagato shifted uncomfortably against the post she was chained to, glancing around at the other ships nearby. This was the cherry on top of the ultimate humiliation: surviving the war when so many of her friends hadn't. None of her fellow battleships had survived; Haruna, Ise, and Hyuga had all gone together in the final days of the war. When she'd heard of it, she'd screamed to the heavens, asking why she had not been permitted to go as well.

And now…

Now she was paying for things she'd had no control over. The fact that she'd had the honor of being _Gensui_ Yamamoto's flagship at the start of the war earned her Class-A War Criminal status among the American shipgirls. She'd been _persona non-grata_ for nearly a year now; even the destroyer-transports who'd docked alongside her before leaving Japan had virtually ignored her presence. Then came the ignominy of the voyage to Eniwetok…her engines barely functional, sprouting leaks and going dead in the water in the middle of a major storm at sea…Sakawa – disarmed and helpless – attempting to tow her but suffering engine troubles herself…all experiences she'd rather forget. She'd only had cursory repairs done after the war, just enough to get her here, and now she was feeling every one of her 26 years of service.

Sakawa had fared little better in the American's reception of her; the only reason for that was because she'd never actually fought against the U.S. Navy, having been commissioned too late to see active combat. She'd been scheduled to go out with Yamato-san and her group to Okinawa, but had been forced to stay behind due to fuel shortages. She'd never met her sisters Agano and Noshiro, and had fallen apart when informed of Yahagi's sinking. Privately, Nagato commiserated with her; she herself had never really recovered from Mutsu's loss.

"HEY, JAP!"

The battleship's reverie was broken by a shout from astern. An American submarine with the number '305' painted on her conning tower was yelling in Sakawa's direction. For her part, the light cruiser showed no sign of reacting; she'd been catatonic since Yahagi's loss.

"JUST THOUGHT YOU'D LIKE TO KNOW, I SANK YOUR SISTER BACK IN '44!" the submarine laughed cruelly, seemingly insulted that she couldn't get a reaction from her target.

Nagato yearned to swing her 16-inch guns around and blast the _baka_ submarine; at this range, the impudent sub-girl would be reduced to nothing. But she had no control over her great guns anymore…they'd gone silent since her return from the hell that had become known as the Battle of Leyte Gulf. So many of her friends had been lost in those three days, but the greatest loss had come the following month when Kongo had been sunk by a submarine en route home to Japan. While she and Yamato had cried numerous tears over the loss, poor Haruna had been inconsolable.

And now one of her few remaining friends was being harassed by another of those undersea killers. So, she did the only thing she could: she spoke up.

"Leave her alone!" she snarled, using the best 'flagship voice' she could still muster. "Look around you…you're in the same situation she is!"

"She's right, Skate," another voice spoke up from just astern of Nagato. "We're _all_ in the same boat, as it were. So just shut up if you don't have anything nice to say!" She turned to Nagato and smiled nervously. "I apologize for her…some of us relish rubbing in the surrender." She glanced over at Sakawa, who was staring vacantly off at nothing, silent tears running down her cheeks, and stated quietly, "I don't mean to state the obvious, but your friend does not look well."

"She isn't," Nagato replied. "She lost all three of her sisters in the war, and was commissioned too late to even have a chance of avenging their memories."

"Poor girl," the unseen shipgirl replied, then stated, "Sorry for not introducing myself…I'm light carrier Independence, CVL-22."

"Battleship Nagato," Nagato replied, and she could hear a smile in Independence's voice when the carrier replied.

"I know who you are," the American warship confirmed. "We were at Leyte Gulf together."

Further conversation was stopped by a commotion farther away to starboard.

"Y-You can't do this! I've done so much for this country! Take me to President Truman…I demand to see President Truman!" Saratoga wailed as tugboats pushed her into her designated position. The highly decorated carrier – whom, Nagato realized as a sharp pain lanced through her heart, reminded her so very much of an Americanized version of her dearly-departed sister – wailed, in the middle of a complete breakdown. Seeing such a famous carrier so distraught was by no means helping the nerves of several destroyers nearby, and cruisers Pensacola and Salt Lake City tried to calm them down even as they struggled not to lose composure themselves.

"Jesus H. Christ, would they just fucking get this over with?!" Battleship Nevada, anchored off Nagato's port quarter, yelled out. "I mean, come on…we all drew the Dead Man's Hand…end it already!"

The sound of a plane far overhead caught all their attentions.

"I think you might be about to get your wish," Nagato mused.

"Rot in hell, Harry," Nevada murmured, hurling one final epithet at FDR's successor.

The optics on the shipgirls saw the plane's bomb bay doors slowly open, and then a single bomb was dropped and began floating down towards them on a parachute. Every one of the cruisers, carriers, and battleships knew what kind of bomb it was.

" _Hipper! Blücher! Ich komme, meine Schwestern! Mein liebster Bismarck! Ich werde dich bald sehen, meine_ _Liebe!_ " (1) they heard Prinz Eugen cry out, a near-ecstatic tone to her voice.

"Okie?" Nevada murmured dazedly, seeing something the rest of them didn't.

"Princeton…" Independence trailed off.

"Tang? Lagarto? What're you doing here?" Skate sounded startled.

"LEX!" An overjoyed scream was heard from Saratoga.

"Yahagi onee-sama!" Nagato was startled by the emotional cry from Sakawa.

Then she heard it…that teasing laugh she hadn't heard since that fateful day in early June 1943. She shifted in her chains and saw Mutsu standing nearby, smiling that special smile she'd reserved solely for Nagato, extending her hand to her sister.

Nagato struggled mightily against her chains and, using a final burst of strength as a proud member of the Big Seven, managed to partially free one arm. She reached out, grasping Mutsu's hand and returning her sister's smile as the world vanished in a blinding flash.

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TRANSLATIONS

1) Hipper! Blucher! I'm coming, my sisters! My dearest Bismarck! I'll see you soon, my love!

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